Turkish nationalism (Turkish:Türk milliyetçiliği) is nationalism among the people ofTurkey and individuals whose national identity isTurkish. Turkish nationalism consists of political and social movements and sentiments prompted by a love forTurkish culture,Turkish language andhistory, and a sense of pride in Turkey and Turkish people. While national consciousness in Turkish nation can be traced back centuries, nationalism has been a predominant determinant of Turkish attitudes mainly since the 20th century. Modern Turkish nationalism rose during theTanzimat era. It also has a complicated relationship withMuslim identity,Pan-Turkism, andTuranism.
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After thefall of theOttoman Empire,Mustafa Kemal Atatürk came to power. He introduced alanguage reform with the aim to "cleanse" the Turkish language of foreign (mostly Arabic and Persian) influence.[4] He also promoted theTurkish History Thesis in Turkish political and educational circles from 1930s. Turkish researchers at the time likeHüseyin Cahit Yalçın andRıfat Osman Bey also came up with the idea that EarlySumerians were proto-Turks.[5]
The early Turkish nationalists were typicallysecular and often influenced byZiya Gökalp (1876–1924).[6] Gökalp aimed for theTurkification of Islam; that theQuran should be translated from Arabic into Turkish, and that theadhan should be recited in Turkish instead of Arabic from theMinarets.[6] During the early years of the republic, religious traditions were not important and Turkish nationalists were much more open to the westernization of the Turkish society.[6]
Ideologies associated with Turkish nationalism includePan-Turkism orTuranism (a form of ethnic or racial essentialism ornational mysticism),Turkish–Islamic nationalism (which combines Turkish nationalism with Islamic identity), Anatolianism (which considers the Turkish nation as a separate entity which developed after theSeljuk conquest ofAnatolia in the 11th century), andsecular,civic nationalistKemalism (which defines the "Turks" as thenational identity of the people ofTurkey).[7] The term "ultranationalism" is often used to describe Turkish nationalism.[8]
Implemented byAtatürk, the founding ideology of theRepublic of Turkey features nationalism (Turkish:milliyetçilik) as one of its six principles. Following theproclamation of the republic in 1923, the Kemalism or "Turkishstate nationalism"[9] became the official state ideology and the guiding principle behind the widespread socio-political reforms.[9]
The Kemalist revolution aimed to create anation state from the remnants of the multi-religious and multi-ethnicOttoman Empire. Kemalist nationalism originates from thesocial contract theories, especially from thecivic nationalist principles advocated byJean-Jacques Rousseau and hisSocial Contract. The Kemalist perception of social contract was effected by thedissolution of the Ottoman Empire which was perceived as a product of failure of the Ottoman "Millet" system and the ineffectiveOttomanism policy. Kemalist nationalism, after experiencing the Ottoman Empire's breakdown, defined the social contract as its "highest ideal".[citation needed]
In the 1930s Kemalism became an all-encompassingstate ideology based on Atatürk's sayings and writings. The Kemalist definition of nationality was integrated toArticle 66 of the Constitution of the Republic of Turkey. Legally, every citizen is defined as a Turk, regardless ofethnicity or religion.Turkish nationality law states that he or she can be deprived of his/her nationality only through an act of treason.[10]
Kemalist nationalism believes in the principle that the Turkish state is an indivisible whole comprising its territory and people, which is defined as the "unity of the state".
"Turanist" nationalism began with theTuranian Society founded in 1839, followed in 1908 with the Turkish Society, which later became theTurkish Hearths[11] and eventually expanded to include ideologies such asPan-Turanism andPan-Turkism.
Pan-Turkism (Turkish:Türkçülük or Pan-Türkizm), as he stated in his bookPrinciples of Turkism, was also a part ofZiya Gökalp's nationalist view which he called "Turkism", as an ideal of the unity ofTurkic peoples.[12]
TheYoung Turk Revolution which overthrew SultanAbdul Hamid II, brought Turkish nationalists to power in theOttoman Empire, eventually leading to theThree Pashas' control of the late Ottoman government.[13][14]
Anatolianism (Turkish:Anadoluculuk) takes as its starting point that the main source ofTurkish culture should beAnatolia (Anadolu), and the main base of this thought is that theTurkish people had built a new civilization in Anatolia after 1071 when they won at theBattle of Manzikert.[citation needed]
In the early Republican era, some intellectuals likeHilmi Ziya Ülken,[15] Mehmet Râif Ogan[16] and Nurettin Topçu[17] proposed that the origins of the Turkish nationalism should be sought in Anatolia, not in "Turan".[18]
Hilmi Ziya Ülken, one of the founders of Anatolianism, was opposed toNeo-Ottomanism andPan-Islamism, as well as to Turanism. In 1919, Ülken wrote a book titledAnadolunun Bugünki Vazifeleri (Present Duties of Anatolia), but it was not published. Ülken and friends published the periodicalAnadolu. They worked to form an alternative philosophy to Ottomanism, Islamism and Turanism.
Turkish-Islamic nationalism, also known as the Turkish-Islamic synthesis (Turkish:Türk-İslam sentezi) is a Islamic-conservative ideology that combines Turkish nationalism andIslam.
The term was coined in 1972 by the conservative historianİbrahim Kafesoğlu, who traced the Turkish–Islamic nationalism back to the first Muslim Turkic dynasty, theKarakhanids, in the 11th century. Kafesoğlu viewed the contact between the ancient steppe culture of the Turks and Islam as a process of refinement. The Turkish–Islamic nationalism was represented in the 1970s in the intellectual clubAydınlar Ocağı (Turkish:Intellectuals' Hearth) of which cofounder was Kafesoğlu.[19] Representatives of the intellectual club explicitly formulated their thoughts and in particular their understanding of history in 1973 in the textAydınlar Ocağı'nın Görüşü (Turkish:The View of the Intellectuals's Hearth). The starting point wasanti-communism and an endeavor to counter theMarxist ideology, which was perceived as a threat to Turkish values.
After the turmoil of the 1970s with bloody clashes between political camps and the1980 Turkish coup d'état, the junta tried, despite reservations about religious fundamentalism (Turkish:irtica), to use Islamic-conservative ideas and values to restore order and unity.[20] Following the 1980 coup d'état, the military dictatorship made a combination ofPan-Turkism,[21]Turkish–Islamic nationalism, andKemalism as the official state ideology.[22] Thought leaders of the Turkish–Islamic nationalism assumed that the Turks played a prominent role in the spread of Islam and thereby developed their national identity as part of the Islamicummah. According to this conception, being Turkish is only possible in connection with Islam. The idea of a Turkish–Islamic nationalism is still very popular in circles of theÜlkücü movement.
Turkish Cypriot nationalism emphasizes the support for the independence of theTurkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) and desires that the TRNC stay independent from Turkey while opposing the idea of a united Cyprus with the Greek-dominatedRepublic of Cyprus.[23]
Aneo-Nazi group existed in 1969 inİzmir, when a group of formerRepublican Villagers Nation Party members (precursor party of theNationalist Movement Party) founded the association "Nasyonal Aktivite ve Zinde İnkişaf" (National Activity and Vigorous Development). The club maintained two combat units. The members woreSA uniforms and used theHitler salute. One of the leaders (Gündüz Kapancıoğlu) was re-admitted to the Nationalist Movement Party in 1975.[24]
Today, apart fromneo-fascist[32]Grey Wolves and the Turkishultranationalist[39]MHP, there are some neo-Nazi organizations in Turkey such as the Ataman Brotherhood,[40] or the Turkish Nazi Party[41] and the National Socialist Party of Turkey which are mainly based on the Internet.[42][43][44]
Following two decades long Islamic-conservative AK Party rule, many authors and scholars point out a newly emerging wave, called secular nationalism by the most.[45] This new wave is yet to acquire a precise form and discourse,[46] but attracted interest mainly from young adults who are disillusioned with government policies - especially unregulated refugee influx.[47]
Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code, which is perceived as contrary to the notion offreedom of speech, took effect on June 1, 2005, and was amended in 2008, states:The person who publicly denigrates the Turkish Nation, the Republic of Turkey, the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, the Government of the Republic of Turkey and the judicial organs of the State, shall be punished with imprisonment of six months to two years. The article also states,expressions of thought intended to criticize shall not constitute a crime, and that it cannot be invoked without the approval of theMinister of Justice.[48]
There have been recent indications that Turkey may repeal or modify Article 301, after the embarrassment suffered by some high-profile cases.[49] Nationalists within the judicial system, intent on derailingTurkey's full admission into the European Union, have used Article 301 to initiate trials against people like Nobel Prize–winning Turkish novelistOrhan Pamuk, the Turkish novelistElif Shafak, and the lateHrant Dink[50] for acknowledging the existence of theArmenian genocide.
In May 2007, a law was put into effect allowing Turkey to block websites that are deemed insulting to Atatürk.[51]
TheTurkish Ministry of Environment and Forestry has proposed a revision of thetaxonomic nomenclature of threesubspecies. The name changes removed references toArmenia andKurdistan in thetaxonomic nomenclature of subspecies of each animal.[52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59]
The declared taxonomic nomenclature for the three subspecies is effective for the Turkish Environment and Forestry Ministry. According to a statement released by the same ministry on 4 March 2005, the original names were divisive and contradicted "Turkish unity".[60][52][61] The ministry has been quoted stating:[52]
Unfortunately there are many otherspecies in Turkey which were named this way with ill intentions. This ill intent is so obvious that even species only found in our country were given names against Turkey's unity.
Some Turkish officials have said that the original taxonomic nomenclature was intended in bad faith to imply that Armenians and Kurds resided in the areas where the animals lived.[52]
Andrew Polaszek, the executive secretary of theInternational Commission on Zoological Nomenclature, the organization responsible for establishing species naming conventions, has said in an interview that acceptance of the revised names would depend upon article publications inscientific journals, but that they were otherwise acceptable from a scientific viewpoint.[61] As of 2013, the changes affect only official taxonomic nomenclature usage by the Turkish government,[citation needed] and theInternational Code of Zoological Nomenclature does not recognize the name changes.[citation needed]
| Animal | Scientific name | Proposed new name |
|---|---|---|
.jpg) | Vulpes vulpes kurdistanica | Vulpes vulpes |
 | Ovis armeniana | Ovis orientalis anatolicus |
 | Capreolus capreolus armenius | Capreolus capreolus capreolus |
In the prevailing literature, the term ultra-nationalism is often used to describe Turkish nationalism.
Turkey Renames Armenian Animals
| External videos | |
|---|---|
 Turkey: Religious freedom vs nationalism -BBC |
Media related toTurkish nationalism at Wikimedia Commons